Here's To Being Less Messed Up
by riptidedauntlessgryffindor
Summary: The talk that never happened between Magnus and Annabeth at the end of the Sword of Summer, and then more little extra drabbles. (Spoilers for Rick Riordan's books throughout the story.)
1. One

**Here's To Being Less Messed Up**

"So, Annabeth," I asked once we were comfortably eating falafel. "You think your life is messed up, huh?"

"You wouldn't believe me, I swear on the gods," she replied, her face growing serious. Her grey eyes stopped twinkling happily, and instead looked like pieces of a stone pillar.

"Well, okay then. Tell me." I smiled at her, hoping she would talk. I really wanted to get to know her as much as I could. It was going to be hard to make up all of our lost time together.

"Honestly, I'm telling you, you will _not_ believe me," Annabeth muttered, and she started to play with the necklace around her neck. I noticed she fingered one bead the most, the one painted with flames and...was that a mechanical dragon head I saw? It looked like the most recent bead, because the paint had faded on all the other beads.

"Just tell me," I said, trying not to sound exasperated. If Annabeth wouldn't tell me, I would never get to know her better.

"You're not going to be happy...but okay." She took a deep breath before launching into her tale. "So, basically, Greek gods are real too. And I'm a daughter of Athena, who's the goddess of wisdom. I don't really have any special powers, but my boyfriend, who's a son of Poseidon, can control water. Last summer, Gaea, the earth goddess, was threatening to rise from the earth and take over, so we had to stop her."

"Wow..." I mused. "That sounds...not very fun?"

"Tell me about it," Annabeth said. She looked relieved to have gotten her story off her chest, but she also seemed like there was something she was holding back. Before I could ask her, she blurted out, "Oh yeah, and I fell into hell."

"What?" I asked, not sure if I'd heard her correctly. "You did _what now_?"

"Oh, um, yeah. My boyfriend and I fell into Tartarus, which is the Greek equivalent of hell, but worse." Annabeth winced. It looked like it pained her to talk about it. She must have seen my confused face, because she managed a weak smile. "I told you that you wouldn't believe me."

"Sorry," I said. "It's just that...I do believe you, but...I don't know. It seems crazy."

"I thought so too, when I first heard about it. But nope, it's true. You want proof?" Annabeth asked. "I have proof."

"Um, okay," I said softly, not sure what she was going to do. "If you want to."

She started rolling up her sleeves, and I gasped out loud at all the scars on her arms. "This was just from walking through Tartarus. All the ones from monsters are much worse," she explained.

I looked at her in awe. How was she still alive? I wondered why she had to go through such horribleness. I was about to ask when she interrupted my thoughts.

"Well, anyway, enough about me!" she exclaimed in a fake cheery voice. "Your turn!"

"I dunno, my life is going to seem uninteresting compared to yours," I said. "Maybe save me for another time."

"As long as you promise not to die again, we're all good," Annabeth said, grinning. Then she raised her plastic bottle full of water. "Here's to being less messed up?"

I smiled too, and tapped my soda can against her bottle. "Hear, hear!"

When it was time to leave, we hugged. "Stay safe," was the first thing both of us thought to whisper to each other. "I love you," was second.

"See you soon, you butt," Annabeth murmured before I left.

I really hoped I would see her again.


	2. Two

**Hi, remember me?**

 **Here's part 2 of "Here's To Being Less Messed Up."**

 **Please review and tell me if you want me to continue, because I have some ideas for future chapters...**

 **-SOS**

 **Part 2**

"So, basically, a prophecy pretty much messed up my life," I said, biting into my slice of pizza. We had finally set up another meeting together, this time at a place called Crazy Dough's Pizza. It was near the falafel place, and the only reason we weren't meeting there was because of a guy named Percy Jackson, my cousin Annabeth's boyfriend. He didn't like falafel, so we had to make accommodations accordingly.

"A prophecy messed up _your_ life?" Percy exclaimed. He started to take deep breaths and turn red as Annabeth tried to calm him down. It must have worked, because all he said was, "Gods, Magnus. Just be glad you're not me."

"I'm dead," I reminded him. "My life – or lack of – was worse than yours."

"Oh yeah?" Percy asked. "Did you grow up without a parent?"

"Without both, actually," I answered. "Mom died when I was fourteen, and I've been living on the streets since then."

"Um…" Percy looked like he was losing his spark. "Do you have an awesome girlfriend like mine?"

"You seem to be forgetting that your girlfriend also happens to be my cousin," I said proudly, ignoring Annabeth's eye roll as she watched us one-up each other.

"Ugh!" Percy groaned. "Why are you so perfect, bro?"

"Oh, we can call each other that now, bro?"

Annabeth stared at us with an amused smile. "Jason Grace again," she muttered, looking questioningly at Percy to confirm her statement.

"What? No," Percy said. "Jason is way cooler. Plus, Magnus and I don't have Operation Solangelo to connect us."

"Operation _what now_?" Annabeth and I inquired at the same time.

"Oh…um, nothing," Percy whispered, his face turning red. "It may be possible that I wasn't supposed to tell you that."

"And who's Jason Grace?" I asked, changing the subject.

"He…um, let's just say he passed out a lot during a quest, and now we pair him together with a brick," Annabeth explained before bursting into laughter.

"So like Hearthstone. I bet he passed out even more than Jason Grace, even though I have no idea who he is," I mused. "Cool."

Annabeth shook her head affectionately. "Yeah, I guess." She looked at her watch. "Well, I have to go. So does Percy."

"I do?" Percy looked like the news was a complete surprise to him. Then Annabeth glared at him and he then proceeded to stutter, "Okay…yeah. I guess I do have to go."

I hugged Annabeth, whispering, "Stay safe," as she said the same thing. I shook Percy's hand and we did the weird man-hug thing where we both patted each other on the back while we were shaking hands.

As they left, I wondered: _Would I ever see them again?_


	3. Three

**Author's note-**

 **Thanks for all the reviews/favorites/follows; you guys are awesome! Enjoy chapter 3! I still have more ideas for future chapters, so tell me if you want more! Also, I wrote a little Christmas One-Shot for this fandom. If you have time, please check it out!**

 **-SOS**

 **C** **hapter 3:**

I couldn't get to sleep. Something was nagging at the corners of my brain… Something I couldn't avoid thinking about. I knew I was supposed to be safe, here at the Hotel Valhalla, but there was something wrong, and I just could not place what it was.

Rolling over and getting tangled up in my black-and-beige comforter, I sighed. I knew life, or rather, death, would never be perfect, but at least I could stop worrying for once. I used to have really bad anxiety back when I lived on the streets, but it got better with Hearth and Blitz helping me survive, though right now, it seemed like it was coming right back.

Just as I was about to close my eyes and go back to sleep, a flash of light in the corner caught my eye. Gulping, I reached out towards it with Jack, my sword, but before I could do any killing, Percy's face appeared, misty as if he was talking through a rainbow or something.

"H-hi, Magnus," he said shakily. "Did I... did I wake you up?"

"Are you okay?" I asked, ignoring his question. I could see that his eyes were bloodshot, like he had been crying, and his forehead was rimmed in sweat.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up," he replied, ignoring me now. "It's just, I didn't want to wake Annabeth. She's actually been sleeping pretty well lately, and I didn't want to disturb it with just… just another stupid nightmare."

"Is it Tartar… Tartar Sauce?" I wondered tentatively. "I mean, not tartar sauce. Tartar–"

"Tartarus," he finished. "How did you know about that?"

"Annabeth...might have mentioned it," I said, not going into detail. "She never said you had nightmares, though. I thought...never mind."

"What did you think?" He swallowed, and I hoped he wasn't going to start crying. I'm awkward around crying people.

"I guess I just thought that you guys were like, superheroes or something. That you could go through anything without batting an eye. But now I know, at the end of the day, everyone's human. Right?" I looked at Percy with concern. He was wiping a hand across his eye, trying not to let his lower lip tremble.

"But Magnus, I'm not supposed to be like this! There are people out there who have it worse than me, and they don't break down and call their girlfriend's cousin every time they have a freaking nightmare!" Percy bit his lip so hard I could see blood.

"Percy, everyone is human," I said, speaking slowly so he could understand. "Sometimes I have nightmares too, but I have nothing really that bad about my life."

"I'm sorry for bothering you with this," Percy said softly, calmer now. "I'll just go back to sleep."

"Tell Annabeth I said hi, then?" I asked. "And try to feel better, okay?"

"Hey, you can take the man away from the worst, but you can't take the worst away from the man," he said wisely. "See you around, Magnus."

"Stay safe," I replied. "Hopefully next time we see each other we'll be less messed up."

"I agree with that," he said, cracking a smile. "Bye."

And he slashed his hand through the misty message, leaving me wondering what it even was. I was glad that he was human too, and that he thought I was trustworthy enough to confide in.


	4. Four

**Author's note:**

 **So, hi again. Finally got inspiration to write this story. :)**

 **Yeah, there's a little** **cliffhanger at the end but hey! I might update faster with reviews!**

 **-SOS**

 **Chapter 4: Chapter 4**

After staying in the Hotel Valhalla for so long, it began to get boring. Even with my friends, and the amazing prospect of being able to live forever, I felt like there was nothing to do. One day, everyone finally got tired of my complaining, and after they tried not to get mad at me, Sam shoved an envelope into my hand. "Now you can shut up," she told me.

Raising my eyebrows (because me? Shut up? As if…), I opened the envelope. It was a round trip train ticket to the New York City. "How much did this cost?" I asked. "You're not supposed to spend your money on me."

"Don't worry about it. It's not even from us," she said. "Your friend Percy sent it for you."

"So, should I go _now_?" I asked. "That's pretty short notice."

"Oh, just leave already," Sam joked. I laughed.

"Well, I guess I'll see you around, then," I said. "Bye, guys."

I reached New York City a few hours later, and it was almost lunchtime. But I had to find Percy and hopefully Annabeth. I walked out of the train station only to be hugged by my cousin and my cousin's boyfriend.

"Magnus! You're okay," they both said, smiling.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked.

"There's been a lot of monster attacks lately. We think it'd be best if we go to Camp Half-Blood and be safe," Annabeth said.

"Plus, you can meet all of our friends," Percy said. "Chiron, our director, will want to talk to you."

For some reason, I imagined a man sticking needles into me instead of someone just asking me questions. I don't know why, but that was what came to mind. Still, I said, "Let's go there, if you want."

Percy got some flying horse thing to bring us there (honestly, I've seen so much I'm not at all surprised by anything much anymore) and we landed outside a strawberry farm. "This is Camp Half-Blood," he said, while Annabeth muttered something next to him.

Before I could scoff at the 'camp', a real camp appeared. It was amazing, starting at the top of this hill and stretching all the way to the waterfront. There were cabins, and it was so cool. Each one was different, and they all were big enough for at least 30 people.

" _This_ is Camp Half-Blood," Annabeth corrected Percy. He shrugged, but then his eyes widened.

"Annabeth, Magnus, _run_!"

That was the last thing I heard before started to run, hit my head, and passed out like Hearthstone and Jason Grace.


End file.
